- Our economy needs investors like Mr Zorin. California welcomes him with open arms.
- May I quote you on that, Mr Howe?
- Certainly. Is there anything else I can tell the Financial Times?

The dialogue is from A View to a Kill, in which James Bond — a la Roger Moore — poses as an FT reporter “James Stock” to figure out whether tech billionaire Max Zorin is simply a savvy microchip entrepreneur or a megalomaniac eugenicist with a plan to takeover the world.

The Bond cannon provides a few other characters who, as we’ll explain below, no longer seem quite so fantastically fictional. Read more

But Uber, the taxi app formed by Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick in 2009, is heading for a funding round anyway, and it’s doing so at a proposed market value of $10bn. (Note to FT Alphaville selves — we must really get round to launching that Shut App!* idea we’ve had.)